Running with Shifters (completed)

Chapter 19 Meg-Elaine

Chapter 19

Meg-Elaine

"Okay, I think we're done for today. Nice job everyone." Everyone gives a little cheer before crashing onto the couches that line the walls. We're in the living room, we moved the furniture to the walls on our first night and it's become our sleeping slash sparring area.

Linden, being the weirdo that he is, exaggeratedly collapses on the floor right in front of me. I step on his back before stepping over, pretending to not notice him, and let out a laugh when he starts wheezing. Poor guy, we've put him through intensive training for the past week, trying to get him so that, heaven forbid there were another battle, he could actually defend himself.

He's by no means a prodigy like Iz, but he's not completely hopeless. He's not used to training so we started out having to do only a few hours and have gradually worked our way up to all day. For the older Shifters it's just practicing but we have to teach the children and him everything from scratch. The Shifters have been teaching him how to fight them in their animal forms and I've been teaching him how to use the daggers (Iz and Vlain are off somewhere using normal steel daggers so I have the gold ones back), and Eli has been teaching him how to wrestle.

Just as I get to sit down next to Eli the door opens and Iz and Vlain walk in arm in arm, laughing about some unknown thing. She sees Lin's prone form and looks to me in concern. "He's fine. We trained really hard today and he's just exhausted. He's getting better though, he even managed to kick me a few times." My ribs still kind of hurt from where one of his kicks landed.

She beams, looking to him proudly, and I can't help but smile. She's the only one he hasn't yet fought (he's even fought Em, who won by accidentally kicking him between the legs), Iz's afraid that she'll accidentally lose control and hurt him. He didn't seem too excited about this (even though I and probably everyone else would be), but he calmed down once she promised to go against him once he was good enough.

Personally, I doubt he'll ever be good enough to go against her and win, but that's not for me to decide.

She kneels next to him and starts massaging his back and shoulders when he sighs and flattens out.

Growing bored, I turn to Eli and nod towards the door, suggesting we escape. He nods, smiling, and stands up before pulling me up after him. In a few minutes we're trotting through the forest, me riding on his furry back with his clothes in my arms, as we make our way towards our favorite spot we discovered a few days ago.

It doesn't take long to get there (now that we've figured out the shortest path to take) and before I know it I'm standing in the clearing as Eli changes behind a tree. I imagine our little clearing filled with wild flowers, the brook trickling by languidly, as song birds twitter from the branches of nearby trees. I'm sucked back from my warm imaginings by the sudden freezing wind that makes me huddle deeper into my coat and reminds me that it's still the middle of winter. Then to top it off it's nearly dark and not the bright midday of my dreams.

Eli comes up behind me, his footsteps crunching in the thin layer of snow, and he wraps his arms around me. I'm enveloped in warmth and snuggle back against his chest as he chuckles at my reaction. Shifters' temperatures run only slightly higher than humans (like someone with a low fever), but right now I'm thankful for every blessed degree.

We sit under the branches of the dormant willow at the frozen stream's edge and I think of a question I've been wanting to ask him for quite a while now but have never known the right time to ask. I guess now is as close to the perfect time as ever, considering no one else can hear anything we say and there's no one to see me make a fool of myself if he just brushes me off.

"Eli?"

He looks down at me, tilting his head so that our eyes can meet from where my head rests on his shoulder, "hm?" His chest rumbles and I try not to giggle as his jacket tickles my ear.

"Tell me about yourself."